Bucks Council hails weight management scheme as child and adult obesity falls

The prevalence of child and adult obesity has fallen in Buckinghamshire, new data shows.

The number of reception-age children classified as obese has dropped from 8.3 per cent to 7.1 per cent, according to the National Child Measurement Programme.

Obesity among year six children also fell from 18 per cent to 17.1 per cent, according to the data from the end of the 2022/23 academic year.

The findings were presented to a meeting of Buckinghamshire Council’s health and wellbeing board this week.

Meanwhile, the percentage of adults classified as overweight or obese in the county reduced from 61 per cent in 2020/21 to 60 per cent in 2021/22.

Over the same period, obesity among adults fell from 21.4 per cent to 20.5 per cent.

During the board meeting, the council’s director of public health Dr Jane O’Grady pointed to the impact of the authority’s health initiatives.

She told the board: “You can see the success of our weight management services with very good results.”

The health chief also praised Healthy Start, the council’s campaign to get healthy food to families living hardship.

She added: “Our programme, which we co-designed with parents, has been very successful, reaching far more people than we thought.”

More information can be found online on the council website here.

National obesity rates, collected from NHS data, that were reported last year showed that 22.7 per cent of year six children were leaving school overweight.